Portageville family honors son's legacy with annual bingo fundraiser for scholarship

PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. — A Portageville family is organizing its fourth annual fundraiser for a Murray State University scholarship in memory of their son who died 2022.

Chris and Laurie Scherer said their 24-year-old son, Brady Scherer, earned a bachelor’s degree in English and was working toward a second degree in Japanese at Murray State University before he died in February 2022. His plan after college was to teach English in Japan for a year, his parents.

The one-night bingo fundraiser, which includes bingo games and food, will be Saturday, Feb. 8 at the St. Eustachius Parish Center in Portageville. The barbecue meal will begin at 6 p.m. with bingo starting at 7 p.m.

Cost is $25 for the meal and a bingo card. Extra bingo cards will be $5 each.

According to Laurie Scherer, the scholarship fund was established at First Community State Bank in Portageville. The scholarship is geared to English and creative writing students.

“This all started when we lost Brady,” said his mother. “He was 24 years old and had gotten COVID-19 pneumonia and spent a week in Murray Hospital and then they flew him to Ascension St. Thomas West Hospital in Nashville (Tennessee).”

Scherer said they put Brady on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, or ECMO, but that Brady’s body didn’t respond to the treatment.

“The school had originally started Baskets for Brady,” Scherer said. “We had a basketball tournament and we had many people in the gym and it was amazing. We raised $3,000 or $,4,000.

Scherer continued: “I told my husband we had to do something with this money because Brady would want us to help people with it.”

Scherer said her son was big on helping others.

“Brady went for the underdog — the one that didn’t get a whole lot of recognition, so that's how we based the scholarship.”

Scherer said they changed it from baskets to bingo, and it has been a huge success.

“I never realized how much people love bingo, but people love it,” Scherer said.

Scherer said her son was the kind of person who just wanted to help others, and he was all about family and friends.

“He loved college, school and learning,” Scherer said.

Scherer said they plan to continue the fundraiser as long as they can.

For more information, contact Chris Scherer at 573-576-0949.